EPSTEIN ZETA-FUNCTIONS, SUBCONVEXITY, AND THE PURITY CONJECTURE

Abstract

Subconvexity bounds on the critical line are proved for general Epstein zeta-functions of $k$-ary quadratic forms. This is related to sup-norm bounds for unitary Eisenstein series on $\text{GL}(k)$ associated with the maximal parabolic of type $(k-1,1)$, and the exact sup-norm exponent is determined to be $(k-2)/8$ for $k\geqslant 4$. In particular, if $k$ is odd, this exponent is not in $\frac{1}{4}\mathbb{Z}$, which is relevant in the context of Sarnak’s purity conjecture and shows that it can in general not directly be generalized to Eisenstein series.